


if you've got the best of me, i don't know how

by dabblingDilettante



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Meet the Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:34:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28421019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dabblingDilettante/pseuds/dabblingDilettante
Summary: Wherein Edelgard is persuaded to take Khalid to meet her family and is thoroughly embarrassed in the process.
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg/Claude von Riegan
Comments: 1
Kudos: 35
Collections: Edelclaude Exchange 2020





	if you've got the best of me, i don't know how

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WhiteRose_Is_My_Life](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhiteRose_Is_My_Life/gifts).



> For the Edelclaude 2020 Winter Exchange! I hope you have a wonderful holiday and new year!
> 
> Featuring the many names I personally picked out to be equally bad names for all of Edelgard's siblings.

“Are you sure you want to do this,” she muttered. “My family isn’t … what I would call small.”

“Pssh,” Khalid said. “When my family has get togethers, it can be anywhere from a single person to eighty depending on the size of the room and how far out we’re considering family to include.”

“And they’re loud,” Edelgard went on. “And –“

“Embarrassing, I’m sure,” he said.

“…Perhaps,” she said.

“Hey, it’s not like we’re getting married or anything!” he laughed. “They don’t have that much ammo to use against you.”

“You _say_ that, but I doubt you realize the kind of people they are.”

“I was figuring a little like you,” he said.

“Unfortunately not.” Her eyes were grave.

“Well, unfortunately for you, you’ve declined to give me very much information in the first place. Come on, a penny for your family drama. I’ll give you a penny in return.” Khalid held out his hand. “Though all I’ve got is a quarter, so I might need a little change.”

When Edelgard rolled to a stop light, she looked at him with the degree of a smile in her eyes – the edges crinkled up despite her pursed lips. It was in her car that they were going to her house in – likely because she didn’t want to give him the address. 

While the two of them went to school in the northeast, it turned out her family lived further south of their college – Edelgard had freely informed him that it was one of the several reasons she had selected the school. When Khalid had asked if that meant they were bad, she’d been insistent that it wasn’t the case. That didn’t change the steely avoidance with which she treated the subject, but – she also wasn’t the kind to avoid openly disliking things, either. 

It wasn’t an inconsiderable trip. Driving on a three day weekend and taking the opportunity to book a hotel so they didn’t have to drive five hours in one day to get there and back. Khalid and Edelgard traded back and forth between their podcasts, Khalid rolling his eyes at the dozens of NPR casts she’d downloaded and Edelgard half-tuning out his crime and theology casts. 

A short time for people like the two of them had turned out to be close to a year – otherwise known as the length of time the two of them had inadvertently hidden their relationship from most people around them. Those who had discovered only allowed out the truth in small ripples, a web of knowledge reaching out further and further until only the people they least wanted to know finally discovered the dreadful reality.

Their supposed rivalry had only ever been a precursor to a relationship.

So all of Khalid’s friend group knew, thanks to people like Hilda, and most of Edelgard’s friend group knew, due to a joint operation between Dorothea and Ferdinand, stymied as it was at first by Hubert. To Edelgard’s relief and Khalid’s general assumption, no one really cared and was just pleased they were happy.

“I was hoping it would be some time before my family found out though,” sighed Edelgard.

“How did they find out anyway?” Khalid asked with some curiosity. He’d been able to hide the truth from his pestering parents, but that was more because they spent most of their time abroad for work and travel now that he’d left the ‘nest’ as it were.

She was pulling off the highway, so it took some time before she gave an answer, her eyes scanning over unfamiliar street signs and cul-de-sacs. She was thinking, really, from the way her fingers stretched out along the steering wheel.

“A mutual family friend,” she said, finally. “He casually brought it up to my step-father and it spread from him.”

“You have a step-father?” Khalid asked.

“Oh,” she said. “I never told you.”

He waved for Edelgard to stop and she pulled off into a gas station. “What else do I not know. Might be useful before we get there.”

When they arrived, the door was open before they had reached the stoop. Dogs rushes out and circled madly around Edelgard, at least one of them big enough to stand up on its hind legs and place its front legs soundly on her shoulders.

“Not right now, Gisela,” Edelgard fussed, but didn’t push the dog off her.

A woman waved from the door. “Come in, please! Welcome, welcome, it’s wonderful to finally meet El’s partner.”

Khalid focused in on the woman. Bright gray eyes so light they were purple in the moonlight, almond brown hair, and short as Edelgard herself – even if Edelgard had said nothing, he would have guessed this was her mother. “It’s great to meet you, Patricia.” He was glad he’d interviewed Edelgard ahead of time. He put out a hand and she took it to shake. “I’m Khalid, hope El hasn’t told you too much about my various crimes and deeds.”

“Khalid?” she asked, pronouncing the name a couple of times under her breath as if to familiarize herself to the way he said it. “You know, we’d been given a different name. If I’d known, I would have made sure everyone was up to date ahead of time.”

He withheld a laugh. “Oh, let me guess.” Khalid glanced back at Edelgard, who was still rounding up the pups. “Hey, why are you giving them a fake name? I thought I’d updated you on that ages ago!”

“Listen!” she yelled back, panting as she dragged the dogs up with her. “I’m not the one who introduced you.”

“Oh,” he said. “So a _friend_ of mine happened to be the family friend you mentioned?”

“Family friend?” Patricia said with a blink. “Oh, El, I thought you were closer to Dimitri than that.”

“Dimitri?” Khalid said. “ _Dimitri_ is the person?”

“That’s her step brother,” Patricia said. “She didn’t know until a few years later, since they didn’t spend much time together as kids, so I suppose she might not think of it in that manner.”

“Mother, perhaps I do not wish to expose every family secret I have in a single night,” groaned Edelgard. “May I please come in as well? It may not be winter yet, but I am no less freezing.”

“Baby face Dimitri is your baby step brother, oh, everyone’s gonna love this one,” Khalid said, holding a hand over his terrible grin. “No wonder you two always showed up to club meetings at the same time.”

Edelgard gave him a withering look and ignored Khalid further to walk the dogs back inside. To her disappointment, Patricia did not lock him outside and instead pushed him along behind the entourage. Along the hall to the kitchen and the dining room, people popped their heads up in bright greetings.

“My oldest brother is Dietrich,” Edelgard had explained in the car. “Don’t expect him or anyone else to look much like myself.”

And indeed he didn’t. Dietrich was tall to begin with. If that wasn’t enough, his short cropped black hair was spiked up alongside his remarkably sharp eye liner. To be frank, it wasn’t what Khalid expected the Hresvelg family get together to feature, but he’d be damned if he said Dietrich wasn’t stately and sharp.

“So you’re the boy my baby sis caught,” said Dietrich.

“Part time boy,” Khalid shrugged.

That made Dietrich smile. “Guess I can forgive her if that’s the case. You can call me Dee. You got a name pref?”

“Khalid’s good,” he said with a two-finger salute. “Though if anyone else had a way to say about it, I guess they still think Claude’s a good one too.”

Dietrich returned the salute and sidled off to the kitchen. Around the corner, a girl with bright red hair shoved her head out, glasses framing the sinister look in her eyes. 

“Hiiiii,” said Gertrude. She was about as Edelgard had described her. Outside of ‘a nightmare in human flesh, the bane of her young life, and eternal rival in bedsheets.’ “I guess you’re ack chu all ey Khalid, so it’s nice ta meetcha.” She held out her hand. “Name’s Gurdy, if you heard any different, you’d be wrong!”

“A pleasure, Gurdy,” Khalid said, taking the hand. Just like Edelgard, she had strong callused hands. 

_Does everyone in this family have nicknames?_ He’d asked before.

Edelgard had only groaned into her hands.

“Willy and Adele are in the kitchen finishing up,” she hummed. “Amy and Connie are still under 18, so they couldn’t sue their mum to let’em come up here.” Gertrude sighed. “Last time they broke out, they insisted on bringing the whole thing to civil court, but she cut off their phones so they couldn’t contact their lawyers.”

Khalid paused, his hand still in Gertrude’s. “I’m sorry?”

“She’s _kidding_ ,” Edelgard hissed, flying in like an eagle to cut through the bond of their hands. Gertrude pulled away before she hit, so all Edelgard landed on was Khalid’s hand. He quickly held her hand and she covered up the blush on her face. “Amalie and Conrad live across the country and cannot simply travel over a small occasion like this.”

“Small occasion!” Gertrude gasped. “Oh, El, you humble yourself before me. Believe me.” She grinned and took Edelgard into her arms, loudly whispering, “There is nothing small about this.”

To Edelgard’s credit, she only looked somewhat horrified at her sister’s statement. As Gertrude walked away, Edelgard dragged Khalid over.

“We can leave now,” she whispered. “My mother already turned on the security system, but the windows aren’t covered in any mesh. We can hide in the bushes before anyone looks.”

“Why would you want to leave when we’ve gotten together such a big bash for you!” another voice called from behind them. Edelgard had no time to turn before a blond landed on her back, arms wrapped around her shoulders. “You’ve not bothered coming to the last three family get togethers, so this is the best way we have to see you!”

“Luther,” she muttered.

The new arrival, Luther, waved nicely at Khalid. “Everyone’s already told me so much about you, but I’m sure Miss Negative here hasn’t even told you about _me_. I’m Lou, and you should feel free to marry my little sister here!”

“I’m _not_ getting married!” Edelgard squealed.

“Oh, that’s what you say every time you date someone,” another blond said. “That’s not my girlfriend, that’s not my boyfriend, that’s not my future partner, so on and so forth. And then what does it turn out?” She leaned on Edelgard’s shoulder. “You’re dating them.”

“Ilse, I’m not interested in starting a family war,” Edelgard muttered. “But I thought at least you would be on my side.”

“El, I love you, but you’re funniest when we’re bothering you,” Ilse said, pinching her cheek gently. She peered up at Khalid. “In case you’re wondering, I’m the oldest, so I don’t get a nickname.”

“What about when we called you Elsa?” Luther said, peeking his head up from behind her.

“We don’t call me Elsa,” said Ilse, a petrified smile on her face terribly reminiscent of Edelgard’s. “And we don’t talk about that.”

Khalid asked, “Not a fan of Froz-“

Edelgard slapped a hand over his mouth and escorted him down the hall. “We _do not_ talk about Frozen around Ilse,” she whispered.

“Got it,” he said. Not that weird. In his family, there were plenty of things that were not to be named, so a children’s movie was nothing in his eyes.

Much to his surprise, it was a small bathroom that Edelgard guided him into, locking the door tight before moving to turn on the lights. She squeezed past him and sank into the bathtub, laying down with her head under the faucet – a slow drip of water landing on her brow.

“…I promise, I do like my family,” she said, after he paced awkwardly in a circle. “I realize that must be what you’re wondering. But they are a lot to handle in a group, and I am not the best at groups. Good as I may be at pretending in public.” 

“I figured that was the case,” answered Khalid.

“How so?”

“You’re opinionated,” he said. “I like that about you. Always have. Even when I complained about it.” Khalid sank down on the fuzzy bath rug next to the toilet and leaned back against the tub. “You were always so good at saying all the things I really couldn’t bring myself to have my name attached to. All the complaints about tuition and sexual harassment and garbage politics.” His eyes closed. “I always wanted you to bring up more though, and that made me stupid, because then I’d argue with you.”

“That doesn’t make you stupid,” she muttered. “It makes you bold.”

“I may have been right, but that doesn’t suddenly stop me from being a coward,” he laughed. “Much as I liked you, you were awful at addressing the racism on campus and a lot of the targeted harassment.”

“I know,” Edelgard said. “…I appreciate you for having the fortitude to come forward. I’ll admit in many ways, I ended up speaking for people who maybe didn’t need someone so inexperienced to speak for them. But I was afraid if I didn’t, no one would ever say anything.”

“That’s fair, but. Hey.” He leaned back and made eye contact. “You’ve got friends you can talk to and prioritize. Even if they don’t want to be the speakers, there’s a network of people out there. You’ve got things you can talk about. So do I.” And he smiled. “Sometimes those cross over, and sometimes they don’t, but we support each other either way. Right?”

“Right,” Edelgard responded, smiling a bit broader than she had before. “However I fail to see what that has to do with this situation.”

“Nothing,” he said brightly. “I was thinking about how gay I am about you.”

Edelgard shoved her hands over her face. “Stop. Don’t talk to me.”

“It’s actually those traits of yours that made it clear to me that you don’t hate your family,” he said. Khalid wrapped an arm around her. “Because if they did trouble you, it would have leaked into some other part of your life. I’m stressed out by my family, but I don’t love them any less for it. So don’t stress it.”

“You act like it’s so easy,” muttered Edelgard.

“Gotta fake it to make it,” he said.

For that, she kissed him. Briefly, but it was still a kiss, and it was still something embarrassing enough that when the two of them walked out of the bathroom, Edelgard’s entire family was standing there to peer and question why the two of them had been in there in the first place.


End file.
